SCHEME: To enable my people to transcend the
Jews political aspirations and embrace Christ as their King

_____________________________________________________________

Our theme is:Jesus reveals Himself as King

Proposition: Christ entered Jerusalem to present
Himself as the promised King

Interrogatory Sentence:Why did
Jesus ride into Jerusalem?

Transitional Sentence:Our passage reveals four (4) aspects
of why Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a young donkey; The Parade for the King, The
Prophecy of the King, The Popularity of the King, and the Protest toward the
King.

[The Title of the Message]

Triumph or Tragedy?

Today’s Truth:

Christ entered Jerusalem to present Himself as the promised
King

[Announce the Text]

Please open your Bibles to John
12:12-19

Prayer for illumination & understanding

Our gracious Father, help us to
hear your holy Word that we may truly understand; and that, understanding, we
may believe and believing, we may be in all in all things faithful and
obedient. Father by understanding your word may we seek your honor and glory in
all that we do; through Christ our Lord.

So Father we ask you, through your
Holy Spirit to open our hearts and minds for the sake, the honor, and the glory
of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, so that as the Scriptures are read and your
Word explained, we may hear with joy what you say to us today. We ask you
Father to show us all that Christ is and what He has done for us by His atoning
work on the cross of Calvary.

Father, may your word today attack and kill
our pride and our dependence on ourselves and may we see the grace of God in
this message and exalt that grace. Father, may the word of God today promote
within us a desire to have a clean and holy heart and to live our lives in the
pursuit of grace-driven sanctification. Father, will you enable me to clearly
communicate the word of God to your people, I ask you for power and unction to
preach your word. Amen.

Re-announce and read the text

Our text for today is John 12:12-19

[Main Introduction]

Attention Getter

The story is told of a woman who was driving home one night.
The weather was really nasty. Rain was coming down in buckets and visibility
was very poor. Seeing taillights ahead of her, she decided to follow the car in
front of her.

Not being able to see,
the car in front seemed to be going in the right direction. So she stuck with
it. All of a sudden the car in front of her came to a stop. She began to wonder
what had happened; perhaps the car in front had hit a deer or something like
that. She began to feel uncomfortable; thinking being stopped in the middle of
the road can often lead to accidents.

Much to her alarm the
car in front of her turned off its lights. Her concern was now growing as well
as her anger, and she was then startled by a knocking on her window. She looked
up and there was a man standing in the pouring rain wanting to speak to her.
She cracked the window open and asked the man what the problem was. The man
replied by stating that was the question he was going to ask her. She retorted
that she wasn’t the one who had stopped in the middle of the road and then
turned off the car lights. The man’s reply was that they were not in the middle
of the road, but they were in his driveway

Obviously, this woman had chosen to follow the leader blindly.
She had chosen to follow without knowing who this leader was or more
importantly where and why he was going in this direction. This leader would not
take her to where she wanted to go.

Orient the Text: The Central Point of the
Text (CPT)

This
morning I want to speak to you about the reason why Jesus rode into the city of
Jerusalem on the back of a young donkey.
This event was a major point in both the life and ministry of Jesus and
for the Jewish nation. It was crucial that the Jews actually understood what
Jesus was doing and why he was going into Jerusalem on that Sunday morning
prior to His crucifixion.

It is obvious that the Jews did not understand the
significance of Jesus’ actions on that Sunday morning. Their misunderstanding
cost them dearly! Jesus and the Jews were definitely on two different pages.
The Jews were far worse off than merely being in someone else’s driveway.

It is no different today is it? The world around us has no
idea of the reason and the significance of Jesus when he rode into Jerusalem
some two thousand years ago.

Raise a Need: The Purpose of the
Text

It is
just as important to us this morning to understand why Jesus did what he did. If
we are going to follow Jesus we must know who He is and why we should be
following him.

State the Purpose

My purpose today
is to enable you to transcend the tragic error of the Jews misplaced motivation
for following Jesus in order to enable you to embrace Jesus as your King so
that you will be good subjects of our King and that you can follow him with
your life.

[Sub Introduction]

[Scripture Introduction]

John
records for us his view and version of the Triumphant Entry of Jesus on this
particular Sunday that we now call Palm Sunday in John 12:12-19. If you haven’t
done so already, please turn to our passage as we answer the question, “Why was Jesus ride into Jerusalem so
significant?”

Background to the Text

[Let me give you a little background on
our text…]

John
was the last gospel that was written about the life and ministry of Jesus. John
was the last apostle alive at the time he wrote his gospel. At the time that
John wrote his gospel he was a pastor and apostle in the church of Ephesus.

He
was nearly 100 years old and obviously at the end of his life. His fellow
Elders, or pastors of the church in Ephesus prevailed upon John, as the last
apostolic link to Jesus, to write his memories of the life and ministry of
Jesus. And so John did.

John
wrote his gospel according to his statement in John 20:31, “…these are written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” (John
12:31, ESV)

This
passage in chapter 12 comes just prior to the Passover feast. As a matter of
fact, John says in Chapter 11 that the time of the Passover was drawing near
and many Jews had already traveled to Jerusalem so that they could purify
themselves and take place in the Passover.

The
eight-day festival of Passover was celebrated in the early spring, from
the 15th through the 22nd of the Hebrew month of Nissan. It commemorates
the emancipation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt.

All
adult males were required to travel to the sanctuary to take part. It combined
two celebrations that were originally separated: Passover and the Feast of
Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:6-8)

Jesus
as an adult male was also required to attend and participate in the Passover
and the feast of unleavened bread. And so, Jesus and his disciples arrived in
Bethany, just outside of Jerusalem, 6 days before the Passover was to begin.

Our theme this morning is:Jesus reveals Himself as King

I propose to you
that: Jesus
entered Jerusalem in order to present Himself as the promised King of the Jews.

Interrogatory Sentence:Why did
Jesus ride into Jerusalem?

Transitional Sentence:Our passage reveals four (4)
aspects of why Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a young donkey; The Parade
for the King, The Prophecy of the
King, The Popularity of the King,
and the Protest toward the King.

[So, let’s begin with the first aspect
revealed in our passage that answers the question of why Jesus rode into
Jerusalem on a donkey that Sunday morning, and that is…]

1A THE PARADE FOR THE KING (VSS.
12-13)

As we
begin, there is something that you have to keep in mind. This event, the ride
into Jerusalem is recorded in all four (4) of the gospels. It is one of the few
events in the life and ministry of Jesus that is recorded in all four (4)
gospels.

Since it is
recorded in all four (4) gospels it must be very important. It is important
then that we fully understand these events as John and the disciples and John’s
readers understood it and to see its significance for us today. John however
does not choose to include all the details that some of the other gospel
writers choose to include.

[As we look at the parade for the
King, the first thing that we need to take note of is…]

1B The
Chronology of the Parade (Vs. 12a)

“The next
day… (th epaurion...)

The literal
reading is “On the morrow…”

Church
history has placed this event on Sunday morning during the last week of Jesus’
life, or what we call the “Passion Week.” As a result some scholars and
commentators simply represent this event to have taken place on Sunday. Hence
we pretty much accept it to be Sunday and we call it Palm Sunday.

In some so
called churches and denominations, there are elaborate ceremonies that recreate
and depict this event each year on Palm Sunday. Donkeys parade through
buildings, hundreds of Palm branches are waved and thrown on floors depicting
this extremely important event.

But, there
actually is no evidence in this passage or in any of the other gospels to
actually substantiate that it actually took place on a Sunday morning.

First of all – we know that Jesus came to
Bethany six (6) days prior to the Passover Feast. He probably stayed in the
house of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. He came to prepare for the feast like any
other Jewish male.

Second – four (4) days later, a lavish
dinner party was thrown for Jesus and presumably his disciples at the house of
Simon, who had been a leper, whom Jesus had healed. This was two days prior to
these events.

It is
possible and more probable that Jesus actually rode into Jerusalem on Monday
morning, making it the 10th of Nissan. This was the day that the
Passover lambs were selected and set aside to be sacrificed.

If we count
back six days from John’s date of the Passover, we have Jesus arriving in
Bethany on Saturday night, the 9th of Nisan. Depending on how long he stayed in
Bethany, he entered Jerusalem either the following day, Sunday, or else Monday.
I. H. Marshall, a prominent New Testament scholar, offers this reconstruction
of Jesus’ final week

For myself, I am going with men
like D. A. Carson and I. H. Marshall and I think it was probably early Monday
morning. However, it doesn’t really matter, especially today, it has already
taken place – and today we believe by faith that the gospel writers said that
Jesus rode into Jerusalem.

[So, as we look at the parade for
the King, the second thing that we need to take note of is…]

Remember,
every Jewish male had to travel to Jerusalem for this feast. Our text says this
was a huge crowd.

Josephus,
who was a Roman author wrote a history of the Jews at the time of Jesus claimed
that during the Passover week the population of Jerusalem attained 2.7 million
Jews. This number would include men, women, children, slaves, and hired
servants.

Carl Laney
in his commentary said that the population in Jerusalem would grow from about
55,000 to over 180,000 people. This might have been the male population.

[John goes on to say…]

“…when they
heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of Palm trees, and went
out to meet him…”

Whatever
the number, we are told that a huge crowd heard Jesus was going to go into the
city and so they grabbed a bunch of Palm tree branches and went to meet up with
him.

What’s the deal with Palm tree branches
and leaves?

First
– let me say, that there would have been no problem at picking or cutting or
obtaining palm branches. Date palms grew like wild fire in and around the city
of Jerusalem.

Second
– there is nothing in the OT or the Law that says palm branches or leaves must
be a part of the Passover or feast of unleavened bread.

Mind
you, palm branches were a significant part of the Feast of the Tabernacle of
Booths:

In
the observance of The Tabernacle of Booths or “Sukkoth,” worshippers processed
through Jerusalem and in the Temple, waving in their right hands something
called alulab, which was a bunch of leafy branches made of willow,
myrtle and palm

But
we do know this –

·When Simon the Maccabees and his army was
successful in driving the Syrians out of Jerusalem, he was feted (lavishly
honored) the Jews played music and waved palm branches

·Palm branches decorated the walls of
Solomon’s Temple

·The date palm came to represent Israel in
the Roman empire

·Some coins have been found with a picture
of palm branches

The
other gospels tell us something that John doesn’t, and that is they would throw
some of these branches on the ground in front of the walking donkey as sort of
like a red carpet.

[So, the first thing
the crowd did was to pick, cut, or obtain palm branches. The next thing we see
in their conduct was that they…

“…and
cried out, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! The King
of Israel!’”

First
of all, hosanna is actually a transliteration into English of the Hebrew
letters of this word.

Second
– it originally meant “Give salvation now.” It came to be a very joyful
exclamation of praise. It was an appeal for deliverance (Heb. hosia
na, Please save Psalm
118:25 )

It
was used in Jewish festivals, especially during the Passover. The Jews would
gather at the gate of the city, then make a long procession through Jerusalem
and into the Temple singing what is known as the Hallel, which is Psalms
113-118.

It
is a joyful Aramaic exclamation of praise, apparently specific to the major
Jewish religious festivals (especially Passover and Tabernacles) in which the
Egyptian Hallel (Psalms 113-118) was recited. It came in liturgical usage to
serve as an expression of joy and praise for deliverance granted or
anticipated.

When
the singers came to the Psalm 118 each male in the procession would raise their
palm branches into the air and wave them.

And so the conduct of
this parade was quite significant. It was a very happy parade with singing and
shouting.

Our theme this morning is:Jesus reveals Himself as King

I propose to you
that: Jesus
entered Jerusalem in order to present Himself as the promised King of the Jews.

[So, the first aspect revealed in
our passage is the Parade for the King. The second aspect revealed in this
passage is…]

The first thing that catches our attention is that
John does not tell us how or where Jesus got the donkey. John does not repeat
the detailed accounts of the finding of the donkey that is recorded in the
synoptic gospels.

We are told
in Matthew 21:1-11 -

“Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to
Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to
them, "Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find
a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone
says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord needs them,' and he will send
them at once." (Matthew 21:1-4, ESV)

John does
make it clear however, that he sees this event as a fulfillment of
Scripture, which he indicates by quoting Zech 9:9.

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O
daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having
salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a
donkey. (Zechariah 9:9, ESV)

Keep in
mind that Zion was originally a designation of a citadel in Jerusalem or
possibly a hill. The term came to be used for all of Jerusalem. The word that
is translated “daughter” is used to include all of the people living in the
city.

The
importance of this event and this reference lies in the fact that it points to
a very distinctive mark of Kingship.

A burning
question has to be, why a donkey? What not a great stallion? It is quite
probable that no other King since King Solomon (a king of peace) had ridden a
young donkey.

The donkey
is a lowly, humble animal. It signifies “peace” not war. The donkey is a
“mount” or animal of peace. Jesus did not come on a war horse. That would have
incited a riot or a great political frenzy had he ridden a horse. No, Jesus
came in peace.

But notice
that the words “fear not” is not in Zechariah. Nor are they in any other
translation or version of this passage.

John might
have taken the idea from Isaiah 40:9 and inserted into the passage from
Zechariah. Also, it was very common for NT authors to take 2 or more OT
references and combine them into what they were writing.

But listen
to D. A. Carson:

“…the
entire OT context must be borne in mind if the full force of the works is to be
recognized. After the promise of the coming king, God further promises, ‘I will
take way the chariots of Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem and the
battle-bow will be broken…”

Carson
then points out what he calls three points that stand out:

·The coming of the gentle king is associated with the
cessation of war

·The coming of the gentle king is associated with the
promise of peace to the nations

·The coming of the gentle king is associated with the
blood of God’s covenant that spells release for prisoners

John is saying that these promises
and prophecies are fulfilled in Jesus as he rides into Jerusalem on this lowly,
humble animal of peace. Jesus is the peaceful king!

2B The
Perplexity by the prophecy

Then John
seems to add an editorial note when he includes this bit of information:

“His
disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was
glorified, then they remembered that these things were written ab out Him and
they had one these things to Him.”(John 12:1, NKJV)

And so this parade was
quite significant and the prophecy was quite significant. It was a very happy parade
with singing and shouting and the prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus as he rode
that young donkey into Jerusalem.

Our theme this morning is:Jesus reveals Himself as King

I propose to you
that: Jesus
entered Jerusalem in order to present Himself as the promised King of the Jews.

“Therefore
the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised
him from the dead,

This
point is very simple and will be very quick.

First
of all, in these two verses John depicts two different crowds.

·1st crowd: is the one that was in Bethany when Jesus
raised Lazarus from the dead. Have you ever stopped to consider just how
profound this was and what an impact it made on the residents of Bethany?

Look
how John phrases it – “…who were with him
when he called Lazarus out of his tomb, and raised him from the dead…”

-out
of his tomb

-and
raised him from the dead

It
made an impact!

·2nd crowd: is the one from vs. 12 that came out to meet
in from Jerusalem, primarily when they had heard about the miracle of Jesus
raising Lazarus from the dead.

·

2B The Implication from the King’s Popularity
(Vs. 17b-19)

“…bore
witness…”

This means
that they “spread the word.” In fact they kept telling it and telling it and
telling it. They talked about what they had seen, a man raised another man from
the dead.

This man
raised a man that had been dead for four (4) days. As a matter of fact that guy
stunk to high heaven.

They
couldn’t keep quite. They wanted to be near and hear more from a guy that can
raise someone from the dead. After all, a man who can raise someone from the
dead and deal with the Roman government.

Well, the parade was
quite significant and the prophecy was quite significant and the popularity was
quite significant. It was a very happy parade with singing and shouting and the
prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus as he rode that young donkey into Jerusalem.
As they word traveled of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead the crowds
continued to grow in number.

Our theme this morning is:Jesus reveals Himself as King

I have proposed to
prove to you that: Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem riding on the back of a young donkey in
order to present Himself as the promised King of the Jews.

[This leads us to our fourth and final aspect reveled in our
passage and that is…]

“The
Pharisees therefore said among themselves, ‘You see that you are accomplishing
nothing…”

This
statement points to a total lack of success by anything that the Pharisees and
done up to this point to silence Jesus and keep the common Jews from following
after Jesus.

It
signifies that all that they had done “had yielded no profit.” All there
efforts to stop, silence, and slay Jesus had gone nowhere. Remember, they had
plotted his death a number of times. They had tried to destroy him a few times.

In essence,
they were saying that by your delays you have gained nothing. They actually put
off killing Jesus on a few occasions because they had been afraid of the common
people. But now, they cry is “kill him now.” Get it over with.

[Look how exasperated they really
are…]

2B The Exaggeration
villainized in the protest

“Look, the whole world has gone after him!”

The word
“behold” introduces something unexpected. They can’t believe that Jesus has
such a following. To them it seems as if the entire world is now following him.
In essence they are saying in their frustration, Jesus has conquered the entire
world.

Well, the parade was
quite significant and the prophecy was quite significant and the popularity was
quite significant. It was a very happy parade with singing and shouting and the
prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus as he rode that young donkey into Jerusalem.
As they word traveled of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead the crowds
continued to grow in number. The Protest against Jesus is quite significant. It
will fuel the frenzy by the Pharisees to put Jesus to death by the end of the
week.

Our theme has been: Jesus reveals himself as King

I have proposed to prove to you that: Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem riding on the back of a young donkey
in order to present Himself as the promised King of the Jews.

I have tried to answer the question of:Why did
Jesus ride into Jerusalem? Or, what did Jesus want to accomplish by this act?

From our passage I hope you have seen revealed four (4)
aspects of why Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a young donkey;

The Parade for the King – in this
parade or procession, Jesus was presenting himself as the King of Israel

The Prophecy of the King – this was prophesied
in the OT Scriptures in a number of places

The Popularity of the King – Jesus had grown exponentially popular due to raising Lazarus from the
dead, unfortunately it was not a popularity from the reality of who he was and
was attempting to reveal

The Protest toward the King – the Pharisees were overwhelmed and frustrated to the
point that they were completely exasperated and engaged in exaggeration

[What do you say we wrap this up?]

[CONCLUSION]

Let me conclude with this humorous little
story:

A little boy was sick on Palm
Sunday and stayed home from church with his mother. His father returned from
church holding a palm branch. The little boy was curious and asked, “Why do you
have that palm branch, dad?” “You see, when Jesus came into town, everyone
waved Palm Branches to honor him, and so we got Palm Branches today.” The
little boy replied, “Aw Shucks the one Sunday I miss is the Sunday that Jesus
shows up”

The one Sunday or Monday morning
that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a young donkey was the one Sunday
or Monday that He showed up to present himself as the king of the Jews and the
Jews didn’t miss his appearance, but they did miss his true person and purpose.

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"Spreading a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the glory of God and the joy of all people through Jesus Christ in Vancouver, Washington.